[Page 302]

The INDIFFERENT.

From the Italian of Metastasio.

1 THANKS, CLOE, thy coquetting art
2 At length hath heal'd my love-sick heart,
3 At length thy slave is free;
4 I feel no tyrant's proud controul,
5 I feel no inmate in my soul,
6 But peace and liberty.
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7 No longer now a fierce desire
8 In anger masks its amorous fire,
9 And fiercer burns suppress'd,
10 I blush not when thy name I hear,
11 I meet thee suddenly, and fear
12 No fluttering in my breast.
13 In dreams I ev'ry trifle see,
14 Yet very rarely dream of thee:
15 I wake, nor think about thee:
16 When absent I ne'er wish thee near:
17 And when thou'rt present I not fear,
18 Nor pray to be without thee.
19 I think, hear, talk about thy charms,
20 Nor stoop the head, nor fold the arms;
21 Nay ev'n my wrongs sit easy.
22 And when my favour'd rival's near
23 And eyes me with insulting leer,
24 His triumphs never teaze me.
25 Put on thy looks of cold disdain,
26 Or speak respectful, 'tis in vain,
27 Nor frowns nor smiles can move.
28 Those lips no more have words that bind,
29 Those eyes no more have light to find
30 The path that leads to love.
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31 Seasons, which wont to take their dye
32 Of foul or fair, from CLOE'S eye,
33 Now their own livery wear.
34 This place I hate, and that I love,
35 The fen's a fen, the grove's a grove,
36 If absent thou, or there.
37 Judge if I speak like one sincere,
38 Still I confess your face is fair,
39 But so are twenty faces;
40 And if plain truth will not offend,
41 You've now some features I could mend,
42 Which once appear'd all graces.
43 Nay more, I own, when from my heart
44 I strove to tug the fatal dart
45 I cut my heart in sunder:
46 But to relieve a constant pain,
47 And to retrieve one's self again,
48 What would one not go-under?
49 The fluttering bird in viscous snare
50 Entangled, willingly will spare
51 For liberty a feather;
52 In time again the feather grows,
53 And wise by danger made, he knows
54 To shun the snare for ever.
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55 But still I hear you smiling say,
56 'Tis sign you've flung their chains away,
57 You take such pains to shew 'em.
58 Why, CLOE, there's a fond delight
59 Our former dangers to recite,
60 And let our neighbours know 'em.
61 After the thunder of the wars,
62 The veteran thus displays his scars,
63 And tells you of his pains;
64 The galley-slave, enslav'd no more,
65 Shews you the shackles which he wore,
66 And where their mark remains.
67 I talk, 'cause talking gives delight,
68 I please myself not CLOE by't,
69 Nor care if she believe;
70 And when myself she deigns to name,
71 Whether she praise my song or blame,
72 I neither joy nor grieve.
73 For me I quit a fickle fair,
74 CLOE has lost a heart sincere,
75 Who first should sing Te deum?
76 You'll never find so true a swain;
77 But women full as false as vain,
78 By dozens one may see 'em.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): The INDIFFERENT. From the Italian of Metastasio.
Author: Thomas Seward
Themes: sex; relations between the sexes
Genres: imitation; translation; paraphrase
References: DMI 22605

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Source edition

Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. II. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 302-305. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.002) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.